Anglers Show Savvy Vs. Sebastian Snook

For the past few weeks, Sebastian Inlet has been offering some of the best snook fishing in the state, and observers credit the bonanza to everything from smarter anglers to recent fishing curbs.

Experienced fishermen have no trouble catching their two-fish limit and most are catching and releasing many additional fish.

There are unconfirmed reports of anglers catching as many as 18 snook per night, some weighing as much as 30 pounds.

''Snook fishing at Sebastian is considerably better than it has ever been, Florida Marine Patrol Sgt. Roger Cutter said. ''Fourteen years ago, I was down there, and snook fishing was not very big. Now on the full moon they're catching them hand over fist.

''Something is different down there because we've got a shortage of snook statewide, yet Sebastian Inlet has an abundance of them, and we're not talking about small fish.''

Area bait and tackle dealers agree with Cutter's assessment.

''We're seeing more snook now than we ever did,'' said Tom Haynes at Whitey's Bait and Tackle.

''We're seeing more fish in the 8- to 10-pound range and also in the 10- to 18-pound range.''

Haynes credited the five months of closed season for some of the improvements.

State fisheries biologists, concerned with what they said was a drastic decline in the state's snook populations, succeeded in banning fishing for the species during the winter and also during the summer spawning season.

The January-February closed season protects the tropical species when cold temperatures make them nearly comatose and easily susceptible to capture.

The summer spawning ban, from June through August, allows the fish to reproduce unmolested in the coastal estuaries.

Some biologists feel the sudden turnaround in snook populations may be due as much to nature's alterations as man-made modifications.

A statewide drought four years ago may have been much of the cause of population declines, and recent rainy seasons may have caused an explosion of small snook.

''We're seeing an increase in the number of small snook that are around,'' said state fisheries biologist Ed Irby.

''There seems to be some relationship between fresh water and snook recruitment -- although we don't know just what the tie-in is.''

One theory, Irby said, is that fresh water inflow lowers the salinity and density of tidal waters, allowing snook eggs to float farther down in the water column and escape both predators and pesticide pollutants.

Haynes thinks nature also helped improve angler success at the inlet.

Last year, a severe storm eroded much of the inlet and sand was was used to fill in many areas, altering the bottom contour.

''The south side of the inlet, west of the bridge is the hottest fishing spot,'' Haynes said. ''I've got a feeling that when they filled in all that sand, where a cove was, a lot of the sand washed out and everything changed over there.''

Haynes said a red-and-white bucktail jig called the Red-Tailed Hawk and a black-back Rebel plug have been the most efficient lures, especially when fished during the latter part of the outgoing tide.

Orlando tackle store owner Tim Stallings, who has caught 84 snook at the inlet this year, agrees that the season is one of the best he has seen.

But Stallings credits some of the increased catches to smarter fishermen -- especially increased savvy on the part of those who don't live near the inlet. ''It's getting better because we're doing things now that the locals over there always did,'' he said. ''Before, we didn't know enough to go with jigs, and cast all the way out to the channel in the middle of the inlet. We didn't know a lot of snook hang there, by the channel dropoff.''

Success isn't spoiling the anglers, however.

Despite the jump in catch rates, the fishermen are obeying the snook laws, and marine patrol spokesman said they have not caught any violators in recent weeks.

An angler may keep only two fish per day and only one of those can be 34 inches or longer. The minimum legal size for the species is 24 inches.